The Post-observation Conference: An Exploration of Feedback Strategies

The post-observation conference is valuable, dedicated time for a teacher to focus their discussion on their own instruction and instructional delivery. This experience serves as an opportunity for the teacher to review the details of a lesson with their observer, while also reflecting on teaching practices. Not only does the post-observation provide the teacher with accolades regarding their teaching performance, but it is also an exchange where the teacher can reflect and is provided with critical feedback to improve instructional execution moving forward. The purpose of this qualitative study is to explore those strategies and conditions that prompt teachers to incidentally use this feedback and to review those qualities of the post-observation conference that keep teachers from putting this feedback into practice. The findings of this study suggest that teachers seek feedback in a post-observation conference that is specific to them, their classrooms, their students, and the lesson observed. The role of observer impacts the perceived efficacy of the post-observation conference, too, as teachers recognize the importance of this relationship to be optimally one of a coach. Based on the study findings, perceived follow-up on feedback in teachers’ classrooms and overt support strategies used by the observer during the actual observation can potentially impact the way in which teachers approach their post-observation conference significantly

Examining the Role of Epistemic Cognition in Teacher Learning and Facilitation of Inquiry Dialogue

In this study, I investigated how a fifth -grade teacher engaged in epistemic cognition when he learned and facilitated inquiry dialogue. Inquiry dialogue is a type of talk in which participants use argumentation to search for the most reasonable answer to a contestable question. It has been suggested to represent the normative dialogue type to enhance students’ reasoning, as it is most aligned with the standards and practice of rigorous argumentation. Despite its importance, researchers have shown that it has not been widely implemented in classrooms and this is partly due to teachers’ epistemic cognition. Given the significance of inquiry dialogue, I sought to understand how teachers’ epistemic cognition informed the learning and facilitation of inquiry dialogue. I used Fives and colleagues (2016; 2017) Epistemic Cognition in Learning and Teaching Framework, Kuhn’s (1991) Developmental Model, and Reznitskaya and colleagues ( 2015, 2017) Argumentation Rating Tool to frame my work and understand how the different components of epistemic cognition interact with each other during teacher learning and facilitating inquiry dialogue in their classrooms. To conduct my research, I used previously collected data, focusing on one fifth grade art teacher, Eric. My data comprised classroom discussions, study group meetings, focus group interviews, coaching sessions, and reflective judgment interview. I conducted a case study analysis to provide a detailed and rich description of the phenomenon under investigation. I analyzed my data using the thematic analysis method with recursive emergent coding. My results indicated that Eric’s thinking about the dimensions of knowledge were inconsistent throughout the professional development phase suggesting that epistemic cognition is a complex process, which is domain, context, and task bound. In addition to the complexity, results suggest that the relationship between epistemic cognition and practice is not linear

Beyond the ballot: 57 democratic innovations from around the world

The aim of this study is to provide The Power Inquiry - an independent inquiry into Britain's democracy - with details and assessments of democratic innovations that might increase and deepen citizen participation in the political decision-making process. The study analyses fifty-seven different innovations – eleven of these are considered in more depth in case studies. The innovations are assessed according to the following criteria: selection mechanism, form of involvement, role in decision-making, scale and transferability, and resource implications. The innovations are categorised, described and assessed under the six headings:electoral innovations, consultation innovations, deliberation innovations, co-governance innovations, direct democracy innovations and e-governance innovations

A hitchhiker’s guide to governance networks: How a governance network can facilitate prevention of radicalisation and violent extremism

In the Nordic countries, we have increasingly witnessed a model of risk governance that outsources the issue of national security to municipalities and local governments. Municipalities are tasked with tackling radicalisation and violent extremism (RVE), of which they are equipped for to a varying degree. This has created the need for pooling of knowledge and competencies in the effort of preventing RVE. One way of pooling knowledge is through governance networks, which operate as a mode of risk governance. However, there is little knowledge of the value created in such governance networks. Thus, this research seeks to contribute to closing knowledge gap on how governance networks can contribute to prevention of RVE. This explorative study will add empirical meat to a skinny bone. The research examines the Nordic Safe Cities network, a governance network that operates with the aim of creating safer Nordic cities. This network has 20 member cities from across the Nordic countries, and offers advisory, webinars and knowledge exchange for the municipal coordinators. Through the theoretical framework of governance networks, the value added to local preventive efforts from this network will be examined. The key findings of this research validate much of the previous knowledge in the field when it comes to how a governance network should be structured in order to be facilitate members’ capacities in prevention work. It sees ten pillars as necessary for the success of a governance network; a governance network will facilitate members’ capacities in prevention of RVE if these pillars are in place. Nevertheless, the lack of evaluations seen in the empirical findings pose challenges to the model for success that this research presents. There is still a long way to go before knowing whether a successful governance network is the same an efficient one, as well as knowing what the real contribution in terms of prevention of RVE-related issues

Beyond the ballot: 57 democratic innovations from around the world

The aim of this study is to provide The Power Inquiry with details and assessments of democratic innovations that might increase and deepen citizen participation in the political decision-making process. The study analyses fifty-seven different innovations – eleven of these are considered in more depth in case studies

A comparative analysis of the implementation of Education for All (EFA) policies in two countries: Barbados and the Republic of Ghana

This study’s goals are to analyze Education for All (EFA) policies in these two Global South countries, Barbados and Ghana, and compare their adaptation, their implementation processes and the outcomes, in conjunction with UNESCO’s EFA goals. The research design used to carry out this project is a comparative case-study as it provides an understanding between the context and the processes, the structures and the actions pertaining to EFA in these two countries. This comparative case-study is based on a document analysis as a method for data collection and analysis with a critical democratic perspective. The findings have shown that factors that have contributed to these countries’ progress towards EFA goals are multilevel and multidimensional. Strategies aiming at economics and finances, politics, administration, education and pedagogy, human resources and non-human resources, have had positive impacts on the EFA implementation. The analysis of the data helped determine whether or not there is anything that can be learned of practical value for other countries which have, thus far, been unable or struggling to meet their EFA goals in terms of early childhood care and universal primary education of quality, gender equality, literacy and lifelong learning

Infusing critical thinking into an employability skills program: The effectiveness of an immersion approach

The demands of the knowledge economy have placed renewed emphasis on graduate employability and the development of higher-order thinking skills. Preparing graduates for the workplace requires new instructional approaches to develop a matrix of interrelated skills. This study investigates an immersion approach to developing employability skills with emphasis on the infusion of critical thinking skills in an undergraduate business degree. The research is situated within the pragmatic paradigm and comprises a mixed methods approach. Analyses of project instructions, student reflections and test scores are presented in an explanatory case study in three parts: the infusion of critical thinking skills in a program that targets employability, the process of critical thinking within a community of inquiry, and the performance of students in a standardised critical thinking skills test after completing the first year of the program. The study shows critical thinking skills to be central to the development of employability skills in an immersion approach and that the project tasks engaged students in a critical thinking cycle. Analyses of test results show that participants in the program outperformed nonparticipants, but that not all participants improved their own performance. Participants from non-English-speaking backgrounds achieved lower means, but still outperformed nonparticipants. It was therefore found that participation in the program can improve student performance in a standardised test, but also that test scores in a standardised test may not be an ecologically valid indicator of critical thinking skills development in authentic learning environments following an immersion approach. The study provides new insight into the infusion of critical thinking skills in an immersion approach and makes explicit a model for employability skills development that will enable business education to deliver graduates who can participate effectively in the workplace of the 21st. century

Uniqueness and Generalization in Organizational Psychology: Research as a Relational Practice

The paper addresses the epistemological and theoretical assumptions that underpin the concept of Work and Organizational Psychology as idiographic, situated, and transformative social science. Positioning the connection between uniqueness and generalization inside the debate around organization studies as applied approaches, the contribution highlights the ontological, gnoseological, and methodological implications at stake. The use of practical instead of scientific rationality is explored, through the perspective of a hermeneutic lens, underlining the main features connected to the adoption of an epistemology of practice. Specifically, the contribution depicts the configuration of the applied research as a relational practice, embedded in the unfolding process of generating knowledge dealing with concrete social contexts and particular social objects. The discussion of a case study regarding a field research project allows one to point out challenges and constraints connected to the enactment of the research process as a social accomplishment